Week 2 + Article Flashcards
List 4 reasons why confidence levels vary between public institutions (from the article):
(1) Different mandates (orders)
(2) The influence of ideology on confidence judgement
(3) Victimization trends and perceptions of crime trends
(4) Effect of direct experience with public institutions
In the article, how do you measure public confidence in systems like the criminal justice system?
You measure by reporting level of confidence (from very satisfied to very dissatisfied) or performance ratings.
In the article, which part of the justice system are rated the most positive and which part the most negative by Canadian public?
Police agencies (RCMP and local police) the most positive while prison systems (prison, parole) the most negative.
Define empirical reality
Reality based on the systematic collection of observable data
Name four methods of measuring crime and source of data for each:
(1) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data, police force
(2) self report surveys, offenders/criminals
(3) Victimization surveys, victims
(4) Observational accounts, interactions with participants and researchers
Name two ways to systematically analyze changes over time:
(1) Victimization data from GSS surveys (short term)
2) UCR data, specifically homicide (long term
Define Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data
Crimes known by the police to have taken place are reported on the UCR data collection forms and relayed to Statistics Canada. The UCR includes violent and crime, property crime, and other Criminal Code violations. Note: it falls under the objectivist-legalistic definition.
What is “Crimes in the United States”?
This book, complied by the FBI, is a compilation of crime data provided by nearly 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States
What is the “British Home Office”?
The part of the government for England and Wales called the Home Office is responsible, among many other things, for compiling statistics on crime.
What is the “Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics” (CCJS)?
An agency in Ottawa responsible for gathering and analyzing the reports submitted by police forces from across the country since 1962 and release the annual reports to public.
What is “UCR2 Survey”?
An alternative method of data collection for Canadian police developed in 1988; a separate statistical record is created for each criminal incident, and it is known as an “incident-based” reporting system (more details).
How is crime data submitted to UCR and UCR2?
Monthly on machine-readable forms from the police force.
What’s the formula to calculate crime rates (changes in crime over time)?
of police-reported crimes x 100,000 / pop. = crime rate
Why should official police statistics be treated with caution?
(1) Some crimes are not reported (various reasons such as victim’s fear of personal safety, distrust, feelings that nothing will be accomplished, not realize they ARE victims of crimes, etc)
(2) Reporting crime depends on function of size/resource of force (certain crimes like prostitution and drug-dealing required proactive policing)
(3) Legislative changes to the definitions of crime can affect the official crime rate (e.g. sexual assault became more specific in 1983)
